There were rocks to sit on. There was also a small strip of sandy beach to find shells and throw them in, but most of all, there was peace. Normally. Today, he’d brought a storm with him, and the peace he sought remained out past the shoreline. The water lapped at his feet, getting his shoes wet as he stood on the edge, and he debated walking out. Stepping off the island and never returning.
Don’t even think about it, a comfortingly familiar voice said to him. Was it in his head? He turned, searching for her. It had been so long since he’d seen her. It made his heart ache thinking about it.
She was sitting with her back to the sea on a rock that jutted out into the water. The expression on her face said she clearly didn’t approve.
“Ashley, Gabe is dead.”
I know. I’ve seen him. So?
“So?” he shouted. “How can you be so callous?”
Death does that to you. She smiled at him, and he realized she was teasing him. Come and sit with me.
He did, but he wanted to look at the ocean, so he sat face to face with her, instead of next to her. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
Yeah, you keep pulling me away from important stuff. I’m a big deal in heaven, you know. You’re down here whining about something, so I have to come down here and put you back together, just like old times.
He laughed. In reality, it was he who often put her back together after Wesley had beaten the living daylights out of her. She smiled softly at him.
I’m sorry, Mason.
“Me too.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, and he wished he had a fishing pole or something like they used to. He missed her. The moment he thought it, she looked over at him knowingly and nodded.
“Where do I go from here, Ashley?”
Home. You go home.
With that, she faded and left him completely alone.
Darkness fell, and the stars looked brilliant on the cold, clear night. He thought about sleeping out there under the stars. Long ago, he’d lost feeling in his fingers, and his wet feet were a lost cause. A few more hours couldn’t hurt any more than it already had. He laid back on the rock and looked up at the stars, wondering what they’d seen in all their years. How many people had been on the Earth, and how many civilizations had destroyed their way of life?
Was that what he was doing? Leading them into certain death? With two people dead at their hands, and more unknowns on the mainland, it sure felt that way.
Some rustling in the bushes behind him stopped his train of thought, although he didn’t sit up to see who it was. Despite the fact that he was on a more remote part of the island, it was too cold and late for an animal to be wandering around. He knew it was either Lehman or Mattli.
“How did you find me?”
“Not like you tramped delicately through the woods here, man,” Lehman said as she sidled up next to him. She’d dressed a lot more warmly than he had. She was prepared to be out here a while. Mason frowned. He didn’t want company. At least not Earthly company.
If she saw his irritation, she ignored it. “Mattli told me what happened. Welcome to the club. Now you’re actually a killer.”
That stopped him. She was right. Many people on the island thought he was already a killer. Now, he owned the title. “I liked it better when people just thought I was a murderer.”
“All right, don’t dig that well of despair too deep. Brooding isn’t your style anyway.”
“You started it,” he accused, only half playfully.
She didn’t answer, instead looking out at the moon’s reflection on the ocean. “It’s rather calm tonight. Think we’ll be this lucky when we launch?”
“When will that ever happen, Lehman? We’ve been working at this for weeks and have killed two people.”
“It won’t happen if we give up. Ever.”
That struck him to the core. The thought of never going back, never reclaiming the mainland, never seeing Ashley’s dreams come true… it almost choked him.
“Yeah, I knew there was still some drive in you. I just had to find it.”
“But how can we go on after this?”
“You find a way. Life will go on no matter what we do. Might as well work toward something good,” she said, patting his leg.
She turned, beckoning him. “Come on. It’s cold out here. You’ve got me out here chasing after you like some lovesick teenager.”
It took a long time to make their way back to the civilization of the island. And when they got to Lehman’s home after over an hour of walking, she invited him in for a drink.
“Tempting. But I think I’ll pass. I’m ready to go home.”
“All right. Offer stands if you change your mind. I’m not big on sleep anyway,” she said.
He nodded at her and turned to leave.
“It doesn’t get easier,” she said as he walked away.
He turned around.
“I know people will say that to you. They said it to me. But it doesn’t. Every day, I wonder who will be next. Who else will I be responsible for? Which family will I have to watch cry as I tell them their loved one died?”
He could only look at her. He’d never heard such blatant honesty about such a thing. His instinct was to comfort her. “It’s only been a couple of weeks, Lehman. It’ll get better.”
“I hope it doesn’t, Mason. It keeps me diligent. It helps me focus on potential problems, scenarios, and every possible way I can keep the people in my charge alive.”
“Well, that’s one way to look at it.”
She only nodded at him, looking very sober in the late-night moonlight.
“Goodnight, Lehman.”
“Back in the saddle tomorrow, Mason.”
He waved over his shoulder at her as he walked back to his home.
22.
Approximate year, 2346
The next few weeks were difficult at best. They were so close to a breakthrough, and they were all tentative. But Mason was at the head of the line, cautioning them at every turn.
Finally, Lehman’s team had a boat that would get them, and all their gear, safely to shore.
When she came to the dead room to break the news, and saw what little progress they’d made, she was confused.
“What’s the hold up?” she asked.
No one wanted to answer. They all just shifted their weight and mumbled something about “delays.”
“What delays? What’s going on?” she demanded.
The room grew silent as Mason came in from the inner chamber.
“Elder Lehman, this is a nice surprise.”
“What’s going on here? It looks like you haven’t made any progress in the last several weeks.”
“Well, we haven’t moved forward at the rate we were before, but we’re still making progress,” he said, his tone encouraging and light.
“Can I speak with you outside?”
“What happened to no secrets among the elders?” he asked.
“Go outside, Mason. None of us wants to hear you get chewed a new one by Lehman there,” Mia Glaskow said. A few of the others cleared their throats. As he looked around, he saw most of them nodding and looking toward the hatch.
“Fine. Throw me under the bus. See how quickly I come to your rescue when you need it.” He followed Lehman, who was already halfway up the ladder.
Once they were outside, he spoke first, to avoid any accusations. “So, to what do I owe this pleasure? Making progress yourself?” He didn’t expect her answer to be yes. It never was. But he thought diverting her attention to her own perceived failings would help her go easy on him.
“Actually, we finally have a boat that will take us to the mainland. We tested it out today. It’s incredibly stable, and it will hold a pretty good load. We’re working on a second to take overflow supplies and things.”
So he was the weak link. Somehow, though, he couldn’t bring himself to push them forward. He was terrified someone else would—
Lehman broke
his train of thought. “This is about Gabe, isn’t it?”
He didn’t answer. Of course it was about Gabe. His match had taken the news surprisingly well, saying she was proud of all he’d done to get them as far as he had. His children were coping the way children do, and he worked hard to provide them with creature comforts, remembering how unhappy Ashley was when her dad died. He’d even requested for them to have one of his shirts made into a pillow, so they would have him with them. Although it was argued it was wasteful when someone else needed a shirt, he said they could have all his other shirts. Just leave one for the kids.
The women ended up having a soft spot for him, or maybe the kids, and made two pillows, one for each of them. And the island still had plenty of clothes to go around.
“You’ll have to let him go, Mason. He wouldn’t want you delaying like this.”
“Delaying? We’re not even ready to leave. I’m not delaying anything.”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, but she said nothing.
As they walked the path, he knew she was right. Gabe was probably screaming at him from wherever he was to keep going. But every time they got to something halfway risky, Mason would put on the brakes and make them go back and redo their work, double and triple checking the connections.
He thought of Ashley and how she moved through her life without second thoughts. Particularly when it came to things like this. Sure, she second-guessed the elders. A lot. But when it came to her quest for the truth, she plowed forward without apology and with such certainty.
It made him wish she were there. Despite the fact that she’d popped up in a dream, or a vision, whatever that was, he still missed her fiercely. He felt like the encounter made her absence that much more evident.
Before they got much further, someone came clomping up the path behind them. They turned to see Mia running full speed toward them.
Mason held out his hands and caught her.
“What’s happened?” His heart raced, knowing deep down something else had gone wrong. And he’d been gone.
“We’ve done it.”
“What?”
“We’ve done it,” she yelled at him, jumping up and down and smiling like some crazed lunatic.
“I don’t understand.”
“So we took some risks while you were out. It only took a few moments. And we got the thing working!”
“But…”
“Mason. Are you touched in the head? How many other ways can I say this? The EMP is working.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well…we can’t for sure, but the panel in the dead room went dark when we turned it on.”
“Oh, God,” he said, taking off running toward the dead room. “How many people were inside? You came out? Shit.” His mind was racing. How fast could three bots travel anyway?
“Mason. It’s okay. The inner chamber was locked when we tested it. The bots are secure. We have no idea if they’re free or whatever, but the device worked, so wherever they are, they’re dead.”
“I need to see for myself,” he said, starting to let it all sink in.
They walked quickly back to the dead room, having gone further than Mason thought. Lehman trailed behind as they stumbled down into the outer chamber.
The device appeared to be running, although it made no sound other than the low hum of energy it produced. It didn’t have any moving parts either, making it difficult to tell it was doing anything at all. But the darkened panel along the wall was hard to ignore. Nothing was working at all. Nothing responded when he flipped switches and pushed buttons. They’d killed it.
He ran his hand over the panel one last time before he turned to the people gathered in the dead room.
“Go get Mattli. It’s time to go home.”
23.
June, 2025
In the next month, chaos descended upon the world. Ashby’s focus became the dead room, finishing it up and making sure the survivors could take back the world someday. Even his team had lost focus. Chaos surrounded them. It wasn’t safe to be outside because of rioting and looting.
He was close to cracking the code, and could only hope he’d have enough time to upload it in the dead room before the world went to hell in a hand basket.
Eventually, one much-needed weekend on the island, he broke down and told Mendi everything about the room and what his plan had morphed into. No longer would the room be his lab. He could see that now. If he survived, he could use it for a time, trying to deactivate the bots remotely, but if he didn’t succeed, he knew they could use it to reclaim the mainland.
The only thing Mendi disagreed with was taking bots to the island. “Why? Isn’t this supposed to be a sanctuary? And what makes you think the bots won’t cross the ocean to find them anyway?”
“Salt water. They won’t tolerate it.”
“Salt water. So why not drench the out-of-control bots with it?”
Ashby sighed, frustrated with his reality. “Because they’d just run. It won’t destroy them. They just don’t like it.”
“Ships. Could people escape on ships?”
“As long as they aren’t being cleaned or maintained by bots, yes. But I know a lot of the cruise lines, barges, and military ships use the bots for better efficiency.”
“Of course they do. Is there anywhere your bots aren’t?” Mendi asked, clearly just as frustrated as Ashby was.
“The island.”
“My question remains—why take the bots there? One of the few safe places in the world?”
“Because I need them to continue working, to try and save the world. And if I die, you need to figure out how to come back if you can. I need to leave this legacy, for you and future generations.”
“This doesn’t end here without you.” Mendi said it so certainly. But somehow, Ashby knew it would. Instinctually, he felt it would reach far beyond their lifetimes and affect generations upon generations, assuming they could live on that long.
He ignored the comment. “I’m close to figuring this out, Mendi. And when I get the code, I’m sending it to you. Upload it to the bots on the island and they should cooperate.”
“What about the rest of the world?” Mendi asked.
“Too many servers have been destroyed. I wouldn’t know where to start with uploading. It doesn’t mean I won’t try, but I fear it’s a losing battle. We’ll have to find some other way to take back the mainland.”
The two men walked down the wooded path to the dead room in silence after that. It had taken some time and deliberation to decide to bring Mendi to the island. But he knew the man would help him, and he would care for his family if he didn’t make it through. The media was calling for Ashby’s head after so many thousands of deaths all over the world. But he knew that soon, even the media would be silenced.
Ashby gave Mendi a tour of the dead room, explaining everything. “This is a new and improved containment box. The signal comes from the panel outside. Only when the door is closed will that initial signal respond. When the timer goes off, the room automatically gives off a second signal, sending the bots back into their box, and then the door can be unlocked. In the event something catastrophic happens, the entire room can be sealed by hitting the red button on the panel, keeping the bots inside.”
“Seems like you’ve got multiple levels of safety here,” Mendi said.
“Yes, well, my daughter is here.”
Mendi grunted as he walked around the interior room. “Why the dead room?”
“Aside from the fact that it signals the death of my career, you’ll be able to use the bots to get rid of dead bodies until you can find a way to come back. Bodies will start piling up over here, and then disease will spread. This will be a practical way to get rid of them. That’s all.”
“Seems to overcomplicate a simple procedure. Why not burn bodies, or sink them in the ocean?” Mendi asked as he walked out and examined the panel Ashby had built.
“Because, this is their key to us
. Their key to normal civilization.”
“Their?”
“Future generations.”
“Oh, please, Ashby. This won’t go on that long.”
“We’ll see.”
Ashby had trouble extracting himself from the island after that. Mendi, and Ashley for that matter, didn’t want him going back. They both knew the shit storm he was facing, but he had to try to get more people to the island.
He knew at least the first airship had been deployed. He could tell. The president still did regular broadcasts from a room that was designed to look like the oval office, giving the people the secure feeling that he was still with them. But the window behind him was too small, and the curtains were a different pattern. It was a set built inside the first airship. At least some of humanity would survive. But not all. Every life he could get to join him on the island was a life saved—one not destroyed by him.
The president’s most recent broadcast had confirmed his worst fears.
“My fellow Americans. I’m afraid we’ve received word that the failure of the nanobots is twofold. A terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for all meltdowns now that their plan has reached its full potential. They hacked Bennet Ashby’s delicate system, inserted a malicious code that not only made the bots autonomous, but also told them to replicate. Now there are more bots than ever running rampant in all corners of the world thanks to the hack, and the lack of security Ashby had in place for his system.”
The feed cut to a grainy image of a hooded man with a deliberately distorted voice. “This world will be cleansed of its greedy, selfish, and power-hungry people.”
The feed then cut back to the president. “Know that we’re working hard with the brightest minds in the world to get the problem under control. Not only that, but we’re also searching tirelessly for the perpetrators of this malicious attack on the entire world. Until then, remain calm and safe. Thank you.”
The Dead World (The Dead Room Trilogy Book 2) Page 15
